Metrology
Megan King/NIST
Cyrus Daugherty (left) and Jacob LaManna with the scroll they used to help work toward solving an ancient mystery.
Highly reflective metallic surfaces are among the most challenging inspection targets in machine vision. Reflections obscure details; defects often become visible only from certain angles, and the quality of manual visual inspections fluctuates throughout the workday.
The Austrian…
A measurement isn’t only a number. It’s a number obtained by an instrument in a physical state.
That distinction becomes critical when the instrument moves, bends, conforms to a surface, or relies on software to correct its own geometry. A rigid gauge can often treat its working…
Finding something underground is one thing. Giving a project team information they can actually use is another.
A technician might pick up a signal with an electromagnetic locator. A ground-penetrating radar scan might show an anomaly running through a proposed work area. An old…
For decades, reverse engineering was a tool reserved for large manufacturers. Aerospace manufacturers leaned on it to keep aging fleets in service when computer-aided design (CAD) data were missing. Defense contractors relied on it to re-create components that had long outlived their original…
When doctors need to deliver precise doses of medicine on a strict schedule, they often administer it intravenously. Intravenous drug delivery methods need to carefully control the flow of medicine into a patient. Knowing the medicine’s flow rate—or the volume of fluid flowing into the patient…
Quality control processes are never about single-inspection scenarios—and yet most inspection systems are. Inspection requirements constantly shift between part dimensions, hard-to-reach areas, quick validations, and precise feature measurements, creating daily challenges for QC professionals.…